William "The Mutilator" Macdonald

The Beginning of the End

In the meantime things were not going quite so well for William MacDonald in his private life. In totally unrelated incidents, he had a severe falling out with his landlord and in the same week he got the sack from his mail-sorting job at the Postal Department. MacDonald had saved a lot of money over the years and he decided to go into business for himself.

Still using the assumed name of Alan Edward Brennan, he paid £560 ($1120) for a mixed business in Burwood, an inner Western suburb of Sydney. In his little shop, he made sandwiches and sold a variety of smallgoods. The shop was also an agency for a dry cleaning company.

One of William MacDonald's victims

McDonald loved it. He had no landlord standing over him and he didn't have to answer to anyone at work. He lived in the residence above the business and for the first time in his life he was left alone. So when the urge to kill came on him again, the Mutilator didn't have to worry about the risk of being caught doing his thing in a public place. He could bring his victims home and have his way with them.

The urges to murder and mutilate came again stronger than ever before and one night early in November 1962, William MacDonald went to a wine saloon called the Wine Palace opposite the People's Palace in Pitt Street in the heart of downtown Sydney looking for a victim. Here he met 42-year-old James Hackett, a petty thief and derelict who had only been out of jail for a couple of weeks.

MacDonald took Hackett back to his new residence and continued drinking until Hackett passed out on the floor. The Mutilator used a knife from his delicatessen to stab the sleeping Hackett. On the first plunge, the long knife went straight through Hackett's neck but, incredibly, Hackett woke up and shielded the next blow with his arm thus diverting the knife into the Mutilator's other hand, cutting it badly.

With blood pouring from the wound in his hand, the Mutilator unleashed renewed homicidal rage on Hackett. He brought the knife down with both hands and plunged it through Hackett's heart, killing him instantly. The floor was awash with blood. But still the Mutilator attacked Hackett's body with the knife until he had to stop for breath.